The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut has entered a consent judgment and ordered a Fairfield restaurant and its owner to pay $244,930 in back wages and liquidated damages to eight employees, as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Division investigators found that Vinny’s of Fairfield Inc. – which does business as Vinny’s Ale House – and owner Ernst H. Buggisch failed to pay required overtime to back-of-the-house employees when they worked more than 40 hours per week. In the settlement, the company also agreed to pay $2,992 in penalties for violations of the overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The investigation determined that the employer paid the employees overtime at straight time rates, in cash, instead of time-and-one-half their regular pay rates as the law requires. The employer also failed to maintain accurate time records, failed to produce records of the cash payments, maintained two sets of time records, and provided inaccurate records to investigators. In addition, the employer intimidated employees during the investigation, coaching them to lie to investigators. The settlement prohibits the defendants from future FLSA wage, recordkeeping, and retaliation violations.